Saints take on Chelsea at St Mary's, but the chances of getting a result are not as far fetched as some would think.
Chelsea's success this season on the face of it looks pretty emphatic, but if you look at what has been the basis of that success then there is every chance of Saints getting something in Sunday's game, indeed perhaps inflicting the Blue's second defeat of the season on them.
A look at the League table shows one glaring thing about Chelsea this season, that is they are unbeatable at home, 9 straight wins with 22 goals scored and only 3 conceded, unlike their main challengers for the title who have dropped five pints at home this season.
Away from home Chelsea are a little less dominating, winning 5, drawing 3 and losing that 1 match at Newcastle.
In fairness to Chelsea two of those draws cam at Manchester City and United but those games were several months ago and their away form since then has not been convincing.
A win at Liverpool 2-1, then a 0-0 draw at Sunderland, that 2-1 defeat at St James Park, and last time out a 2-0 win at Stoke that was far from convincing.
The message is clear, at Stamford Bridge they are invincible, but on the road they have their weaknesses and could Saints be the team to exploit them.
At home Chelsea can dominate and let bully boys like John Terry stroll around and look good, but away from home it is sometimes a different matter and what Saints need to do is expose the Chelsea back four to the pace of Mane and Nathaniel Clyne, unfortunately Ryan Bertrand won't be available for this one, but Mane and Clyne could expose their backline, add Shane Long possibly off the bench and these are the players that can find their achilles heel.
Chelsea are of course a good side, if they werent they would not be in the position they are now, however they are not as good as some would say and we more than perhaps the other sides they have played away from home have the attributes in our team to take them on and beat them.
To do so though Saints have to be tight at the back and not let any lapses in concentration allow Chelsea to score, keep it tight and the longer the game goes on the more opportunities we will have to get in behind them and get John Terry on his back foot
The big consern of course for Saints is that Ryan Bertrand will not be able to play against his parent club, with him in the team I would be confident that we could expose them and more to the point it will be difficult to replace him, Matt Tragett is the obvious choice, but from what i have seen he is not a wing back type of player, he is more defensive and uses the ball, but although that would suit a traditional back four, in the past two games we have played three central defenders and pushed the full back on Im not sure that will suit Targett.
But we can go into this game with no fear, a defeat will not be the end of the world and will get a tough game out of the way, but a win will set us up nicely and even a draw will be a triumph.